Niland getting there by degrees

WHILE Emma Murphy flies the flag for Ireland in the women’s individual championships and fellow Corkwoman Elsa O’Riain carries a fourth seeding into the doubles alongside Australia’s Melissa Anderson, Limerick’s Conor Niland is perfectly poised for a tilt at the NCAA men’s singles championship this week.

Like Murphy, Niland is a senior, and like his compatriot he went to California because of Peter Wright.

In this instance, to play for him on the University of California’s men’s tennis team.

“I thought it would be good for me to come here and get a degree and play really good tennis,” Niland said.

“And also improve my game for a few years before I go back on tour. It worked out really well; I got good coaching and I’m getting a degree out of it.”

Niland was well versed in the coaching he would get.

“I’ve known him for so long,” he said of Wright. “He played Davis Cup for Ireland. He also coached me at the Davis Cup as well. “He’s all about raising your tennis IQ. It comes to a certain level in tennis where everyone can hit the ball well and is a really good athlete. But it takes shot selection, game planning and strategy to take the game to the next level.”

With Wright guiding him, Niland’s tennis IQ has certainly improved.

Ranked 84th in the US at the end of his freshman year, he climbed to No. 36 in his sophomore year before a wrist injury cut short his junior year in 2004.

Last year saw him rise to No. 12 before he took off the 2005 fall season to improve his world ranking on the pro circuit.

“I wanted to be in the top 500 in the world because it means you can get into the majors events,” Niland said. “Looking back on it I didn’t realise how hard it would be. It went well. My goal was also to win a tournament; I won a couple in Sweden.”

Missing the collegiate fall season meant losing his ranking, but since returning for the spring term, Niland once again climbed steadily, as high as No. 3, thanks in part to two upset victories over US collegiate No. 1 Benjamin Kohlloeffel of UCLA and two players who were both ranked fourth at the time of their defeats – Scott Doerner (Pepperdine) and Lars Poerschke (Baylor).

In fact, Niland went unbeaten in 2006 until his last regular season match on April 26, going down 7-5, 6-1 to Washington’s Alex Slovic.

That ended a 19-game winning streak, and there was a further hiccup when he succumbed to Stanford’s Matt Bruch in his conference semi-finals, the Pac-10 Championships.

It has sent his ranking back to sixth, but did not stop him being named Pac-10 player of the year and then, last week, the Intercollegiate Tennis Association’s west region Farnsworth Senior Player of the Year.

Niland graduates this month with a degree in English before entering the pro tour full time.

“You never know what is going to happen,” he said. “I will be travelling so much in the next couple of years, playing on the tour. But I’m thinking about law school after I’m done with tennis.”